Paul Peden's shocking moment at the altar even came as a surprise to him. 

The Phaninc Exchange29-year-old environmental scientist and his fiancée Micah Lussier reunited at the altar during the April 14 Love Is Blind season finale. However, their wedding day went up in flames when Micah flipped the script and asked Paul to make his decision first. 

After Paul told Micah, "I don't think that we can choose each other right now," she stormed off in tears. In an exclusive interview with E! News, Paul revealed he didn't make his decision until the last minute—literally.

"It was as I was saying it," Paul told E! News' Erin Lim Rhodes. "I didn't know until I was saying it. It was so frustrating. I would just swing wildly back and forth."

Paul explained how his decision-making process was a rollercoaster right up until the big day.

"I was super confident and like, ‘OK, I can say yes. I feel comfortable,'" he continued. "And then it would swing back in the other direction. I was like, ‘This is insane. Absolutely not.' I would just bounce back and forth."

Luckily—for Paul, at least—he's still confident about his choice.

"It was right," he said. "In that moment, the truth came out of my mouth."

While their nuptials turned into a nightmare, Paul remains a staunch defender of Micah's—especially in the wake of the 27-year-old marketing manager and cast mate Irina Solomonova receiving an overwhelming amount of hate on social media for their behavior on the show.

"I have hated to see that," Paul told E! News. "I know that they made mistakes, but they do not deserve that intensity of criticism. It's just not fair. It's not right."

After the first batch of Love Is Blind season four episodes dropped, Micah took to Instagram March 28 to apologize for the "emotional immaturity" she displayed on the show.

"They know that they made mistakes," Paul said. "They've acknowledged them. I think that's all you can ask for from somebody. You don't want to continually punish somebody beyond what is necessary to make them recognize that they made a mistake. Anything beyond that is just malicious."

Watch Paul and Micah come face-to-face again when the live Love Is Blind season four reunion streams April 16 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. on Netflix.

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